The MECH Effect
by dootamin
Summary: Humans are a small race, in a galaxy of giants. To supplement their physical weakness, the Massive Exoskeletal Combat Harnesses were developed. When somebody attacks Eden Prime, the crew of the experimental Normandy Stealth Carrier investigates.
1. TRANSMISSION 0: First Contact

The M.E.C.H. Effect

2160 CE

Shanxi Colony

The reports were less than good. Ships in orbit had gone down terribly rapidly, infantry forces reported "giant robots attacking," and communications were jammed.

General Williams was shocked, yes, but more disheartened with just how ineffectual the defenses on Shanxi had been. The massive ships the enemy fielded easily crushed the Iron Fist, Aurora Burst, and Godhammer, as though swatting flies. The reason for it being so huge was, apparently, the fact that it was piloted by giants. Forces near the capital, Beijing IV, had stopped reporting only minutes after the first ship landed. Infantry and light vehicles everywhere reported weapons as "ineffective, even against weak points." The Air Force, when it still had a presence, was only able to damage enemy fighters through concerted, full-squadron attacks. Tanks had proved useful, especially heavy assault tanks, but they were too slow to avoid concentrated enemy fire, and had been lost.

In short, Shanxi was in its death throes. No major city, spaceport, or even farm was spared siege, destruction, or flame, respectively. Oddly, the creatively named Shanxi Outpost, the base General Williams currently resided, in had been missed. Perhaps, he bitterly considered, it's too small to register on their sensors. Regardless, with Shanxi already lost, he had two new missions.

The first was to protect Earth's location. That was probably already failed, but the Cloak Protocol called for base self-destruct in the event of total loss. The General figured that, even if Earth Central hadn't declared it yet, it was probably appropriate under the circumstances.

The second was much harder to do. Warn Earth.

||=\\\\(°•-)/=||

Klaxons blared. In the depths of Shanxi Outpost, behind a heavy, all-mechanical, non-electric blast door, technicians scurried. Loud cranes strained to move their heavy, valuable loads. And in M.E.C.H. Silo One, Point Squad Leader Alenko watched his mech get assembled. The thing was an Excursion-II. Old, now, as mech tech advanced rapidly. Outer colonies like Shanxi got what was left over. Braveheart, and two others similar to it, were it.

The klaxons shifted from loud to piercing. Alenko moved to his Mech Boarding System. Strapping himself in, he felt the horrible, familiar sensation of a thousand maggots crawling into his brain and back. Soon after, a Heads Up Display appeared.

The M.B.U. was crane-lifted into Braveheart. Neural interfaces were disgustingly invasive, but the advantage of being the mech, rather than controlling it, was undeniable. Alenko's legs and weapon mounts whirred, flexed, and moved.

Sunlight suddenly appeared as a crack above him- 360° field of view came with the mech interface- and widened slowly. The crane backed off into the Silo chamber as an elevator lifted Braveheart into the Silo proper. On Alenko's HUD, information started appearing. Battery percentage and estimated operating time- 100%, nearly thirty minutes- were first, followed by weapon heat, a speedometer, and a squad monitor.

Eagle and Centurion had loaded in simultaneously to Alenko and Braveheart. Respectively, MOs Pressly and Graves were the Mech Operators. Point Squad was together; their mission, delivering MO Pressly's M.E.C.H. to the spaceport. Eagle was slightly different than Braveheart and Centurion. It was a Planetary Exit Mech, one of three. While rare, PEM mechs were generally not used, as the cost of fueling them, the space taken by the reactor, and lack of anti-mech weapons made them uncomfortable and weak. Luckily for Eagle, and Earth, it was deemed more pricy to strip them down, rather than just leave them as token units.

Thus, Point's mission. The Giants had cleared, but not occupied, the spaceport. It was probably too small for them, and as such deemed strategically worthless. After all, no more Human military ships remained.

||=\\\\(°•-)/=||

Point leapt through the trees of Shanxi. It had taken more time than expected for them to get to the spaceport. Eagle's reactor had ten more days of fuel, so it was fine, but Braveheart was down to twelve minutes. Centurion only had nine.

It was five minutes later, just before Point could prepare Eagle for takeoff, that Centurion's sensors detected a massive target coming in from the south.

Graves opened Teamcom. Alenko and Pressly looked grim.

"One massive contact, maybe a minute out. Judging from weapon heat, thruster position, and Lift Element output, I'd say it's a Giant transport."

"Acknowledged, Graves. Thanks for the heads up. Pressly, continue with the preparations. Graves, we're moving between Eagle and the dropship."

Point acknowledged Alenko's commands, and acted on them. Then the dropship landed.

The Giants were fast, faster than Alenko had expected for their size. Their weapons, though, were an odd caliber, somewhere between Ship and Heavy class.

Regardless, there were eight of them, and two defenders.

Point Squad had activated the Spaceport's emergency shield. It had a very short lifespan, but it was long enough for Eagle to safely take flight. All that was left was for Braveheart and Centurion to buy time.

M.E.C.H. units couldn't really take cover, instead relying on heavy armor to protect them. Giant guns proved that to be a bad idea.

Alenko found himself pushing Braveheart's synthmuscle to its limits. It ran in fast, loose circles through the trees around the Giant squad, taking potshots. The Giants couldn't land enough consecutive shots to break armor. Meanwhile, the much larger Centurion had taken to firing at an interval that perfectly missed hitting Braveheart while it ran. This forced the Giants into cover, allowing Alenko to easily flank them.

But the Giants adapted quickly.

In a concerted motion, they focused fire on Centurion. The 10-footer's armor held briefly, then cracked, then bullets started penetrating.

Graves died silently, Centurion tearing itself apart in his death throes.

The Giants, with only one dead, made a circle, facing the trees, and started firing. The shots sprayed wildly, but some connected. Braveheart ran still, trying vainly to find cover. Alenko breathed hard with exertion, the neural interface draining him. His armor integrity was almost gone, battery nearly depleted.

He turned to face the Giants, and charged the circle, determined to get one in melee combat.

But Alenko's efforts were overly optimistic. The Giants facing him concentrated fire on his legs. Braveheart couldn't take any more.

Crashing to the ground, Alenko screamed as his body was ripped from the neural interface. Sobbing and bleeding, he stubbornly activated the manual interface. Alenko ignored the crunching sound of bullets hitting electronics as he booted up the camera.

A grainy image briefly appeared. It featured seven Giants, guns blazing. And, in the background, a rocket trail climbing. Alenko sighed, and then bullets finally got through.

\\\TRANSMISSION 0.0 END/

|||FILE ADDENDUM|||

Massive Exoskeletal Combat Harness (M.E.C.H.): A combat system developed after the discovery of Element Zero (Lift Element, as Humans called it until 2168) by Humanity, as a way of dealing with large wildlife safely. Range from five to fifteen feet in height. Element Zero allowed for weight and stability to be controlled, massively improving robotics, as it essentially removed two limiting factors. However, such large robots had a massive power draw, meaning short deployment times, with early M.E.C.H.s seeing deployment times as short as five minutes. Modern mass produced units, such as the Warden series, can go for up to four hours.

Humanity: A small bipedal race, ranging from 1 foot 4 inches (1"3 being a dwarf) to 1 foot 9 inches (record height). Most humans reside at around 1 foot 7 inches.

Synthmuscle: Synthetic muscle, created using nanohydraulic fibers. The first key to robotics, allowing greater finesse and control.

|||ADDENDUM END|||


	2. TRANSMISSION 1: Eden Prime (Touchdown)

\\\TRANSMISSION 1/

Metal clashed with metal. Ashley Williams strained her mech to its limits, just barely overpowering the giant robot in front of her. The Jupiter's heavy weave synthmuscle was good, but somehow the spindly robot before it could nearly match its strength, and had far greater dexterity.

Ashley smashed Jupiter's right weapon mount into the alien robot, and fired the mass driver at point blank range.

More synthetic whirring was picked up by Jupiter, though. It was time to go.

|||\\\=(°•-)=/|||

Far above her, the Normandy flashed into existence.

At the helm, Pilot Jeff "Joker" Moreau breathed out a sigh of relief. He wasn't worried about the jump, but the calculations for that sort of thing were stressful, even through the Ship Control Interface. Beside him, Kaidan Alenko relaxed.

"Under 1500k drift, Joker. Not bad, for an experimental ship." said the human biotic.

And below them, in the sector of the ship designed for Giants, SpecTRe Nihlus Kryik nodded. "That was a solid jump. Your captain will be proud."

Joker said nothing until the Turian was out of earshot.

"Not bad is remembering to zip your pants up after going to the bathroom. Solid is doing it quietly and covertly. I just launched us a quarter of the way across the galaxy in a ship tens of times bigger than anything else Humanity has fielded. I expect more along the lines of, 'you're my god, Joker,' or 'have a raise, Joker.'"

"You should try to be more positive. It was a compliment, after all." Kaidan retorted.

"Yeah, sure, but the thing is, I don't really like having a SpecTRe on board. Council business on a shakedown run? I don't trust it."

Kaidan shook his head. "You're being paranoid. In their position, I'd do the same thing. The Normandy is, after all, the first human vessel any alien race can board."

"Alenko is right." stated a calm, stern voice from behind the two. "SpecTRe Kryik is just here to observe. After all, the galaxy has been quiet recently."

Joker was almost surprised by Commander Shepard. Almost, as nobody but a biotic could walk across the catwalks quietly.

"You say that now, Commander, but just you wait. The SpecTRes are bad, bad news." Joker said, his voice theatrically ominous.

Before Shepard could respond, though, she was interrupted by the comm system. Captain Anderson needed her in the communications suite.

Shepard turned and left without a word, and Joker remained quiet.

"What, no comment? No 'warning Anderson' or anything?" Kaidan remarked.

Joker snorted. "I'm a cocky bastard, but even I'm not dumb enough to make fun of a spec-ops soldier seven times my size."

|||\\\=(°•-)=/|||

The Normandy was traveling to the deployment site, after learning of Eden Prime's current situation. Kryik was getting ready to do a hot-drop over a small village near the spaceport. Accompanying him was Kaidan Alenko.

"I move faster on my own. Your M.E.C.H.s aren't as agile as I am." the SpecTRe calmly stated. Alenko smiled.

"Mr. Kryik, I would like to remind you that I'm a biotic. We human biotics are a stealth recon unit. I'll keep up by biotically accelerating myself. Think of me as an eye in the back of your head, rather than a squadmate." he informed.

Kryik couldn't argue with that, and a few minutes later, SpecTRe and Biotic Reconnaissance Operative together leapt from a slowed Normandy.

||\\\=(°•-)=/||

Meanwhile, the M.E.C.H. wing of the Normandy prepared for battle.

Lieutenant Alexei "Doberman" Dobrynin was preparing the Light M.E.C.H. wing for rapid deployment. Light was a unit twenty strong. In spirit, they formed the modern Marine Corps. Their job: secure the deployment site, scout in the opposite direction of the beacon that the Normandy was there for, and provide fire support for the Heavy and Support wings.

The task of Support was to move the beacon safely onto the Normandy, and as such they piloted something slightly different. Support Wing operated Passive Utility Gear, which were similar to M.E.C.H.s, but had no weapons, armor, or shields, and instead had longer batteries, larger eezo cores, and lifting arms. Due to this, P.U.G.s had to be guarded by something; in this case, a squad of light M.E.C.H.s.

Commander Shepard, MO Jenkins, and MO Carvajal were the Heavy M.E.C.H. wing. Technically, though, only Shepard actually piloted a Heavy unit; Jenkins and Carvajal were only qualified for Medium M.E.C.H.s.

Their mission was to secure the beacon, knock out any enemy forces they found, and rescue any survivors. Heavy Squad had an operating time of sixty minutes (limited by Shepard's unit).

The M.E.C.H. squadron touched down at 17:43.

By 18:28, all of Support, some of Light, and much of Heavy had been damaged or destroyed.

||\\\=(°•-)=/||

Fighting quickly became intense. Light's first job had been harder than anticipated- touchdown being greeted by eighteen robot soldiers. Light consisted of twenty Locust-class M.E.C.H.s, but the robot soldiers had a tech advantage.

Rapid fire weapons drowned shields, and the heat from the plasma softened armor without even punching through. Once a Locust's shields went down, it could take four or five plasma rounds before going down.

Light's guns were no peashooters, either. By most standard infantry measurements, their two weapon mounts collectively formed firepower equivalent to a Light Machine Gun.

Doberman, though, was an extremely skilled pilot, and the operator of a Medium unit. When the bay door opened, and plasma rained in, he was the first on the ground. When the robots changed tactics to focus on one M.E.C.H. at a time, it was Doberman's shuffling tactic that saved many a soldier. When the robots were down to five, Doberman made the call to end the fighting there, in a final push to clear them out.

Despite this, robot forces traded nearly evenly with Light. In the end, only Doberman and five damaged Locusts stood over thirty three downed machines. Soon after, Support and Heavy landed.

Shepard gazed at the battlefield through her Threat-class unit, Henry. Fifteen soldiers down. Fifteen, on a shakedown run. She was angry- anyone would be, after such catastrophic losses.

"Alright, Heavy, parameters changed. Seeing as Light units can't safely face off with these robots, we're going to get the beacon and get out."

Jenkins and Carvajal flashed their affirmatives. Heavy Squad began their move to the dig site. Despite their size, the trundled through the uneven terrain very quickly.

Before long, they reached a straight-and-narrow. Shepard paused.

"I'll take-" she started, but before she could change the squad layout, several small, flying drones whizzed around the corner. All four of them opened fire, targeting Jenkins' mech.

The concentrated plasma fire ripped through his shields instantly, following through to melt and slag his armor. Jenkins never stood a chance.

Carvajal and Shepard opened fire on the drones, but Carvajal only took one down in the time Shepard nailed three. The difference in firepower was stark, and worrying. How much had losing Jenkins just cost them?

Carvajal moved over Jenkins' mech. "Commander..."

"We don't have time, Carvajal. We're already down to fifty minutes. Keep moving." Shepard commanded. Even so, she'd make sure Jenkins got the burial he deserved.

"Aye, Commander. Moving out." Carvajal resumed the forward march.

After a few more firefights, during which their clocks ticked down to thirty five minutes, Heavy Squad reached a field. Sprinting at them was a Phoenix-class M.E.C.H., weapons primed.

Shepard's IFF pinged it as Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. A friendly, then, and judging from the plasma rounds shrieking her way, one in trouble.

Another firefight, with some damage to Shepard's right leg. A brief recruitment, and with it a clock reduction- the Phoenix was down to ten minutes. Even worse, Nihlus and Kaidan had gone radio silent. Then, something horrible happened.

A ship in the distance lifted up. It was huge, outclassing anything any race owned. A gauntlet, leaking electricity, menace, and death into the atmosphere. After a shriek that actually rattled Shepard's dear _Henry_ , it launched beyond the clouds.

Shepard and Heavy Squad continued their advance. By the time they reached the dig site, they were down to eight minutes, and the beacon was missing.

"Fuck!" Shepard exclaimed angrily, "We don't have time for this! Williams, Carvajal, any ideas?"

"The spaceport?" Ashley offered, "The dig team may have moved it to try to escape the robots."

"Agreed, Commander. Plus, once there, we can drop in a recharger." Carvajal added.

||\\\=(°•-)=/||

Still no contact from Nihlus or Kaidan. The dock was deserted, excluding a squad of robots, who put up little fight.

Heavy pulled up to the tram, but as they embarked, a rocket slammed Carvajal off of the side.

"Carvajal!" Shepard shouted, before beginning to return fire. The offending rocket launcher belonged to an 8-foot-high monster of a robot, that began charging at them. Fire support from various robot infantry units backed it up.

Now was the Phoenix's time to shine. Its shields held beneath the crippling fire, and it was Williams' return fire that nailed four robot infantry units.

Shepard's heavy weapons rained three millimeter slugs at a tiny fraction of c in the big guy's direction, throwing it off balance and doing some damage.

Yet, it locked into melee combat with her. The huge synthetic muscles of the 8-footer easily overpowered Shepard's ten-footer heavy muscles. The enemy machine pressed her gun mounts apart, stressing the joints and preventing Shepard from doing much but be crushed. At that time, Williams finished dispatching the infantry. Turning to the large robot, _Jupiter_ opened fire, point blank.

||| TRANSMISSION 1 END |||

\\\FILE ADDENDUM/

M.E.C.H. (2): Balancing large mechs is a challenge. This is done by having four small element zero cores in the unit's fore, aft, port, and starboard. In addition to this, as a rule of thumb, all M.E.C.H.s have a diameter that is 1/3 of their height- a 6 foot tall mech is 2 feet around.

\\\FILE ADDENDUM END/

{The Mass Effect: A Documentary}  
{Arc 3, Scene One: Ballistic Weapons}

Why move from bullets to Element Zero technology? Bullets are much larger, bullet weapons are cheaper, and more durable.

First: weapon power. With the help of Element Zero, tiny bullets can be accelerated to a fraction of the speed of light. That speed gives a grain of sand the killing power of an AP round on steroids. The first Element Zero rifle could dent contemporary tank armor. Modern weapons have almost three times the killing power, rendering bullet weapons effectively useless in a straight fight. Of course, Element Zero weapons cannot be traditionally silenced- they move faster than sound, thus rendering any silencer pointless.

Next, there is ammunition…

{Video Clip Ends}


	3. TRANSMISSION 2: Eden Prime (Takeoff)

p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"|||ALLIANCE DATABASE|||/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"LOADING PROFILE "SHEPARD"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"DATA RECEIVED- 7/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"/open/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"BEGIN FILE…/p  
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"2156: Shepard is born. No natural talent for biotics./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"2174a: January 1: Shepard enlists.*/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"2174b: November 1: Shepard enters active service./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"2176a: April 23: While on shore leave to Elysium, her home, Shepard repels the assault with the help of visiting Salarian diplomats.*/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"2176b: May 29: New deep-space and planetary scanning devices gifted to Humanity by Salarians, in thanks for the protection of their diplomats. Credit given to Shepard, primarily./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"2177: Scanning of planet Akuze reveals trap set by unknown assailants. Shepard safely disables trap from orbit; calls in investigative ship. No conclusive leads./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"2183: Eden Prime events./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"*Details removed, reason: Proper security clearance not found./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"*Shepard piloted a manual-operation loader, with an assault rifle wired into the right arm./p  
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"|||TRANSMISSION 3|||/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"A brief scan showed Carvajal's vitals to be fatal. After dispatching the large robot, Williams' battery was down to less than a minute, and it was deemed necessary for her to stay behind. Shepard forged on ahead, effectively using her Heavy M.E.C.H.'s powerful weapons and armor to clobber the less-than-organized robot soldiers before her./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Shepard turned emHenry/em off at the foot of the stairs. It was clear that it had served its purpose, though she did take her infantry weapon with her. Littered around the beacon were dozens of robot corpses. Hydraulic fluid stained most nearby surfaces, forcing Shepard to watch her step./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Impressively, the many dead robots could all be attested to SpecTRe Kryik's impressive combat skills. Regrettable, the corpse of SpecTRe Kryik could be attested to the overwhelming numbers of the robots. How he had managed to get all of them alone, and get emall /emof them without fail, astounded the Commander./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Kryik lay several feet from the beacon. He had laid down his life to protect it. Sitting atop his chest, stubbornly trying to use his biotics to bring the SpecTRe back, was the missing Kaidan Alenko. Tears streamed down his face, the emotions of a soldier losing a comrade all too evident. Shepard was surprised- the turian had been all too professional for many to even speak to him./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"The sobbing efforts of a man to save his friend were rudely interrupted by a blinding flash of green light. Suddenly, Alenko was clutching the the armor he'd been compressing moments ago, as the beacon appeared to empull him in/em. Not fond of the premise of that being on her record, Shepard ran up to pull him from the beacon's grasp./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"With a mighty tug, Alenko was sent back a foot or two. Not very far, but far enough that the beacon gave up on him and went for the entirely unattached Commander, sucking her into its swirling depths./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"|||TRANSMISSION INTERRUPT A|||/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"OPENING DOCUMENT/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"emTranscriber's Note: What follows is, in sequence, the computer's transcription, then my transcription. I have included both for the sake of clarity. Also, built into this is the recovered three minutes of the actual vision. You can play it on screen, but I really don't recommend that unless you've got a supercomputer, and even then it doesn't make much more sense than the computer transcription. For some reason, a few days later the original files started corrupting extremely quickly, and three minutes was all we could save. Now, we only have these transcriptions./em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"strongMILITARY VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE 0976 DESIGNATION "HENRY"/strong/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"strongTRANSCRIBE NEURAL LOGS JUNE 9 2183 21:43- JUNE 10 15:22/strong/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"emscreamreooeapireade fear anatinaenetreserve hide deansteonsteronster GOD OF MACHINES montingindeanctitistanaridden moved thlaadmesbeferonead/em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Transcriber's Version (based on video)/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"[Unintelligible screaming]/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"[Vague, chaotic flashes of flesh and machine]/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"[Something metal]/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"[Planets]/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"[Vision ends]/p  
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"|||TRANSMISSION 3 RESUME|||/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Shepard awoke with a gasp. Her head was still on fire from whatever she had just experienced, and she nearly started sobbing in agony. Pushing away the urge, Shepard went against what her instincts told her to do and sat up slowly./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Shooting a concerned look her way, the resident Doctor Chakwas glared at her. At least she knew she was on the Normandy./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Commander, you really should be getting rest right now. As it stands, having the beacon explode around you is not something we generally consider healthy," the good Doctor admonished./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Shepard groaned. "What do you mean exploded?" Before the Doctor could answer, though, Captain Anderson stepped through the open door. He sent the still-befuddled Shepard a look loaded with meaning that went over her head, and asked the Doctor to leave./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Ah, Commander. Good to see that you're awake," the Captain said with a smiled./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Maybe for everyone else. I feel like shit," said Commander growled in response. She really did feel like shit, too. Shepard's head, eyes, and spine all felt like something had injected fire into them. "I… while I was unconscious, I had this crazy dream. Featuring robots and death, mostly. Can't make heads or tails out of it," she sighed. "Felt really relevant, given the enemy at hand."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Anderson nodded. "Well, dreams aside, I'm here to give you a quick debrief. We filed a report with the council. As it turns out, those robots are the Geth. Haven't been seen outside of the Perseus Veil in centuries, apparently. Anyways, the Council is holding a hearing for Saren, who Kaidan, with confirmation from Nihlus, said was there. No suit cameras captured him; or much footage at all. As such, we're required to be there for the hearing as testimonies. In fact, we're only a few hours out- that's why I'm debriefing you." The staggering amount of information took a moment to process. Shaking her head, the Commander sighed./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Wake me when you need me." she grumbled./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Anderson chuckled. "Dismissed."br /br /\\\FILE ADDENDUM/br /br /M.E.C.H. (3): While originally designed to combat hostile fauna, M.E.C.H. units have seen widespread use in the civilian world. These stripped-down robotic frames are excellent aides in the construction of large scale, a modern requirement for participation in the Council's galaxy./p 


	4. END

Just a last update for anyone who had been reading this. I lost all my original documents for this, as it was written back when I still used Word. SSD failure. You know how it is. Worse, chapter three became completely fucked, and I cannot be bothered to go recover that, as my writing has come so far by this point that I was gonna have to rewrite everything anyways.

So I will.

I'll be releasing MECH Effect's spiritual successor some time soon. Unlike this one, I won't be debating reviewers in the AN over stupid shit that doesn't matter because it's plausible, not realistic. I won't be abandoning it. I won't be very fast on the updates, as I'm busy developing the Mythic TTRPG with Vorked, but they'll come. Probably monthly.

And even better, it won't just be a rehash of the main series. It's going to stand on its own, as a side story in a world that never was. Ever read Renegade Reinterpretations? I'm planning to draw some inspiration from that.

It may be a while, but bear with me. MECHs are coming back, better than ever, and I hope to see a few of you when they do.


End file.
